Two Killed In Small Plane Crash Near I-90 Cessna Clipped Trees As It Went Down West Of Snoqualmie Pass
A small plane crashed Saturday a couple of miles west of Snoqualmie Pass near Interstate 90, and both people aboard were killed, King County Police said.
Amy Burrage, a police dispatcher, said crews worked into the evening to recover the bodies of the pilot, a man, and the passenger, a woman.
Their names were being withheld late Saturday night. Jeff Guzzetti, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, described them as a 34-year-old Woodinville man and his mother, also of Woodinville.
Earl Davis, owner of Davis Aviation in Gig Harbor, said the Cessna 152 was rented by a man with a commercial rating to fly multiple propeller engines who had rented from the company several times in recent weeks.
“He was going from here (Tacoma Narrows Airport) to Monroe,” Davis said. “Why he’s up in the pass, I don’t know.”
Guzzetti said the man took off about 10 a.m. There was no immediate word on where the woman boarded the plane. Guzzetti said he would try to determine today whether the plane landed in Monroe.
Davis and Gary Mayer, FAA duty officer in Auburn, said there had been no reports of problems with the aircraft.
“It’s like a new plane,” Davis said.
Guzzetti said a signal from the plane’s emergency locator transmitter was received by the state Aeronautics Division shortly before noon, and the wreckage was located about 2:20 p.m.
The mangled wreckage was located on a steep, forested slope off I-90 about 50 miles east of Seattle, but there were no immediate indications that the crash was seen by anyone on the heavily travelled freeway.
Several treetops were clipped by the plane. Fog and low clouds were reported in the area at the time.
Guzzetti said the plane apparently lost its left wing when it hit a 75-foot tree, then crashed upside down about 150 feet away.
There was fuel in the tanks and no apparent sign of fire, explosion, midair breakup, mechanical failure or drug or alcohol use, he added.